Seles Fears Graf Will Be in Grand Form Today

Steffi Graf and Monica Seles, the two hardest hitters in women’s tennis, will play today in the French Open final. The last time they played, three weeks ago, Seles ended Graf’s 66-match winning streak with a 6-4, 6-3 victory on clay at the German Open in Berlin.

Seles, who has a 31-match winning streak, is expecting something different in the rematch.

“It will be a totally new match,” Seles said. “This will be totally different conditions, a Grand Slam. It’s going to be probably hard to do the same thing. I’m not in as good a form as I was then.”

Seles, 16, has complained of physical and mental fatigue since the French Open began, which may be a legitimate excuse.

She has won five tournaments in a row, including consecutive finals against Martina Navratilova in Rome and Graf in Berlin.

“Mentally, I didn’t think I was prepared to beat both players in consecutive weeks,” Seles said. “That’s why I think in many of my matches, I haven’t played well, because I gave so much the last two tournaments.”

If Seles took a rocky road to the final, Graf took an express train. In six matches, she has lost only 22 games, only once losing as many as four in a set.

The only thing that troubled Graf was a brief respiratory problem.

“So far, even with the cold I’ve had, I’ve won every match very easily, so I can’t complain,” she said.

This is Graf’s 13th consecutive final in 23 Grand Slam events. She has won seven of her last eight Grand Slam finals, losing only to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in last year’s French Open.

Whereas Graf has nine Grand Slam titles, this will be Seles’ first appearance in a Grand Slam final.

“I won’t think of it as my first one,” Seles said. “If I did, when I walked on the court, I’d be scared.”

If nothing else, she has reason to be wary of Graf’s record: 31-1 in 1990 and 265-8 since 1987.